“I dream of marrying Alix someday. I have loved her for a long time, but especially deeply and strongly since 1889, when she spent 6 weeks in St. Petersburg. All this time I didn’t believe my feelings, I didn’t believe that my cherished dream could come true,” wrote Nicholas II in his diary, on the first page of which there was a photograph of his Alice.
The marriage of Nicholas II and Alexandra Fedorovna is called holy. No wonder contemporaries said with some envy: “Their honeymoon lasted 23 years...”
Alix and Nicholas II first met when he was 16 years old in St. Petersburg at the wedding of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich with Princess Elizabeth of Hesse-Darmstadt (now the canonized martyr Elisaveta Romanova).
Five years later, Alix of Hesse visited Russia again. The Tsarevich became very interested in her, and the princess did not remain indifferent to him. Returning home, Alix realized that she would only marry the Russian Tsarevich.
Alix did not want to convert to Orthodoxy. In response to the fiery entreaties of Nikolai Romanov, the princess cried and repeated that she was not able to renounce her religion.
Queen Victoria, seeing that her granddaughter might remain completely out of work, also unsuccessfully began to convince her to accept the Russian faith. Only Ella, Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna, began to succeed. The heir wrote in his diary: “They talked until 12 o’clock, but to no avail, she still resists the change of religion. She, poor thing, cried a lot."
The princess's full conversion was helped by sincere, warm words from her days, poured out from his loving heart: “Alix, I understand and respect your religious feelings. But we believe in Christ alone; there is no other Christ. God, who created the world, gave us a soul and a heart.
He filled both my heart and yours with love, so that we could merge soul with soul, so that we would become united and walk the same path in life. Without His will there is nothing. Let your conscience not disturb you that my faith will become your faith. When you learn how beautiful, gracious and humble our Orthodox religion is, how majestic and magnificent our churches and monasteries are and how solemn and stately our services are, you will love them, Alix, and nothing will separate us...”
The princess, crying, listened with bated breath to the inspired words of the crown prince, and then suddenly noticed that tears were also flowing from his blue eyes. Her heart, already filled with love and sadness, could not stand it, and a quiet voice was heard from her lips: “I agree.”
Sovereign Emperor Alexander III died on October 20, 1894 - literally in the arms of his confessor - the holy righteous John of Kronstadt. On the same day, Nikolai Alexandrovich accepted the Throne, and the next day, his bride, Princess Alice of Hesse-Darmstadt, joined Orthodoxy and began to be called Alexandra Feodorovna.
On November 27, 1894, the marriage of Sovereign Emperor Nicholas II to Alexandra Fedorovna took place, after which she wrote in her diary to her husband: “I would never have believed that there could be such completeness of happiness in this world - such a feeling of unity between two mortal beings.
We will not be separated again. Finally, we are together, and our lives are connected to the end, and when this life ends, then in another world we will meet again, and will not be separated forever.”
“What an example, if only they knew about it, was given by this so worthy family life, full of such tenderness! But how few people suspected it! It is true that this family was too indifferent to public opinion and hid from prying eyes . ”
Pierre Gilliard "Emperor Nicholas II and his Family."